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Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Pierre in Poughkeepsie: "chaste and unobjectionable"

Either the most or the least perceptive comment ever on Melville's Pierre (1852):

PIERRE; or, The Ambiguities. By Herman Melville. Harper & Brothers.— A book bearing the above title is before the people. Its contents are written with ability, and are quite chaste and unobjectionable for the refined taste. It is deserving of a ready sale. John Grubb has a supply in his bookstore. --Poughkeepsie Journal, August 7, 1852